▪ I. travail, n.1
(ˈtrævəl, -eɪl)
Forms: (v before 1600 usually written u, in Sc. often w). α. 3–7 trauail, -ayl, 4–6 -ayll, -aille, -ale, 4–7 -aill, -aile, -ayle, 5–6 -aylle; 4 travail, 4–7 -aill, -aile, -ayle, 5 -all(e, 5–6 -ayll, -ale; Sc. 4–5 trawaill, -wailȝe, -aile, -ayle, (5 trewaill), 4–6 trawayll. β. traueylle, 4–7 -ell, -el, 5 -eyle, 6 -eill, -ille, -yll; 5 travelle, 5–7 travell, 5–8 travel, (7 travil); 5–6 Sc. trawel, -ell.
[a. OF. travail suffering or painful effort, trouble (12th c. in Godef. Compl.) = Prov. trebalh, Sp. trabajo, Pg. trabalho, It. travaglio; vbl. n. from travailler, etc.: see travail v. OF. and Pr. had also fem. forms travaille, trebalha, labour, fatigue.
(As to the diverse sense-development in Fr. and in Eng. see travail v.)]
I. 1. Bodily or mental labour or toil, especially of a painful or oppressive nature; exertion; trouble; hardship; suffering. arch.
| α c 1250 O. Kent. Serm. in O.E. Misc. 33 Clepe þo werkmen and yeld hem here trauail. c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 61/247 [H]is trauail nis no þe lasse. a 1300 Cursor M. 9703 (Cott.) Qua wil for pes his trauaill [v.r. trauayl] spend. Ibid. 20942 Was nan sua mikel trauael mad. 13.. Ibid. 12765 (Gött.) Ferli þaim toght hu he might last, Wid sua grete trauale [other MSS. trauaile] and fast. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints ii. (Paulus) 911 He tholit trawal ful gret. c 1386 Chaucer Frankl. T. 889, I wol nat taken a peny of thee For al my craft ne noght for my trauaille [v.rr. -ayle, -aile]. 1390 Gower Conf. III. 231 And lusti youthe his thonk deserveth Upon the travail which he doth. 1422 tr. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv. 152 His modyr that..with grete trauaill hym norishid. Ibid. 158 Ne be not al tymys in traualle and in thoghtis. c 1470 Henry Wallace vi. 672 We may thaim wyne, and mak bot lycht trawaill. 1549 Crowley Last Trumpet 268 Then holde thy selfe therwyth contente, As wyth the wage of thy travayle. 1570 Satir. Poems Reform. xvii. 13 Betuix gude and euill markand our trauaill [rimes saill, fraill]. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. i. (S.T.S.) I. 78 The diligens,..Industrie, and trauale of this Thanaus. 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lii. §1 With care and trauaile to preserue this Article from..sinister construction. 1621 H. Elsing Debates Ho. Lords (Camden) App. 146 For which my paines and travaill they gave me two pesses a manne. 1660 Jer. Taylor Worthy Commun. Introd. 1 Faint and sick with travaile and fear. 1826 E. Irving Babylon I. ii. 64 The common everyday travail of men in trade and handicrafts. 1867 F. Francis Angling xiv. (1880) 489 Ah, what travail have I not endured in the pursuit of May fly hooks. |
| β 13.. Cursor M. 89 (Cott.) Quat bote is to sette traueil [v.rr. -ail, -ayle, -aile] On thyng þat may not auail. [1375 Barbour Bruce (MS. 1487) vii. 45 We haf tynt þis trauell [rime avale].] 1382 Wyclif Gen. xxxi. 42 Myn affliccioun and the traueil of myn hondis the Lord bihelde. c 1400 Rule St. Benet 1855 For vnto trauel wor we born, And al our elders vs be-forn. c 1450 Merlin ii. 26 He that ought doth for a gode man, lesith not his traueyle. 1530 Palsgr. 282/2 Traveyle, labour, trauayl. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. (Rolls) II. 191 This Conranus..Greit travell dalie did vpoun him tak. 1570 Ane Tragedie 32 in Satir. Poems Reform. x. 83 He to serue vs na traueil did spair. 1577 J. Northbrooke Dicing (1843) 56 As Iob sayeth, a man is borne to trauel as the sparkes flee vpward. 1642 Rogers Naaman To Rdr. §1 A great peece of my travell in these Lectures. a 1770 Jortin Serm. (1771) I. iv. 67 He wrought with labor and travel night and day. 1774 Pennant Tour Scot. in 1772 225 After some travel [we] found the inside. |
† 2. With a and pl. A piece of bodily or mental labour; a work, a task; in pl. labours.
| c 1350 Will. Palerne 4712 Þi tenful trauayles þow hast for me suffred. 1390 Gower Conf. III. 133 Thei hadde a gret travail on honde. 1494 Fabyan Chron. vi. cxlix. 135 His manyfolde trauayllys, susteynyd for the weale of the realme. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 10 One that much desyred to eschew the trauayles of Martiall affayres. c 1620 Fletcher & Massinger Trag. Barnavelt v. i, Heaven direct And prosper theis your charitable traviles. 1690 Penn Rise & Progr. Quakers vi. (1834) 80 O it is a travail, a spiritual travail! 1724 A. Collins Gr. Chr. Relig. Pref. 21 He that seeketh her early shall have no great travels. |
† 3. The outcome, product, or result of toil or labour; a (finished) ‘work’; esp. a literary work.
| 1563 Shute Archit. F ij b, I submyt my trauel, vnto allother..of like well wylling affection, wherwith I do offer this my poore atemptes and smal trauailes. 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. 183 The publication..of those neuer enough praised trauailes of master Waterhouse. 1624 Wotton Archit. i. ad fin., I will conclude the first Part of my present Travel. The second remaineth concerning Ornaments. |
4. The labour and pain of child-birth. Phr. in travail (Fr. en travail). Now chiefly fig.
| 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 237 Vor in travail of his beringe is moder was verst ded. c 1300 St. Margarete 283 Eni womman..in trauail of childe. 1512 Helyas in Thoms Prose Rom. (1828) III. 27 In great paine and travaille of bodye she childed .vi. sonnes and a faire doughter. 1535 Coverdale Ps. xlvii[i]. 6 Feare came there vpon them, & sorowe as vpon a woman in hir trauayle. 1599 B. Jonson Cynthia's Rev. v. x, Doe you not see how his legs are in trauaile with a measure? 1611 Bible John xvi. 21 A woman, when shee is in trauaile, hath sorrow, because her houre is come. 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. 180 His wife dying after travel of a daughter. 1754–64 Smellie Midwif. II. 70 She felt all the Praeludia of an imminent travail. 1825 J. Neal Bro. Jonathan III. 448 In the time of her travail. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. III. vi. vii, What a distracted City;..the Hour clearly in travail,—child not to be named till born! 1897 T. Hardy Well-Beloved ii. xiii, Between the travail of the sea without, and the travail of the woman within. |
† 5. transf. The eclipse of a heavenly body. Cf. labour n. 7. Obs. rare.
| 1601 Holland Pliny ii. xii. I. 9 Seeing these things, and the paineful ordinarie travels (since that this tearme is now taken up) of the starres. [1627 Hakewill Apol. x. (1630) 82 Eclipses of the Sun and Moone, in which they are commonly thought to suffer, and to be as it were in travell during that time.] 1640 Bp. Reynolds Passions i. 2 No eye gazeth on the Moone, but in her Travell. |
† 6. transf. The straining movement of a vessel in rough seas. (Cf. labour v. 17.) Obs. rare—1.
| 1687 A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. ii. 10 If the Vessel made but the least Travel, they thought themselves lost. |
II. 7. Journeying, a journey.
For this and the senses derived from it, see travel n., the spelling under which these senses are now differentiated from the preceding.
III. 8. attrib. and Comb., as travail-pain, -pang, pain or pang of child-birth (also fig.).
| 1814 Scott Ld. of Isles iv. xxvii, Thou heard'st a wretched female plain In agony of travail-pain. 1827 Keble Chr. Y., 4th Sund. Trinity, The travail pangs of earth must last Till her appointed hour. 1860 Pusey Min. Proph. 86 The travail-pangs are violent, sudden, irresistible. |
▪ II. † travail, -aile, n.2 Obs.
[= F. travail, pl. travails (1467–8, traval in Godef. Compl., in same sense). Cf. Cotgr., ‘Travail:..also the frame whereinto Farriers put vnrulie horses, when they shooe or dresse them.’ Derivation disputed: by some referred to L. trepālium (see travail v.), by others to L. *trabāculum, or other deriv. of trabs, trabem beam, thing made of beams or timbers.]
A kind of quadrangular frame in which restive horses are secured in order to be shod. Cf. trave n. 2.
| 1594 Nashe Unfort. Trav. Wks. (Grosart) V. 141 The trauaile wherein smithes put wilde horses when they shoo them. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., Travail, in the manege. See the article Travice... This in some of the remoter parts of England goes by the name of a break; and is called in French Travail. 1771 Misc. in Ann. Reg. 177/2 Trabale is derived from trabs, from whence, as I conjecture, proceeds the word travail (travise), which..denotes that machine in which Farriers confine mettlesome and vicious horses in order to shoe them. |
▪ III. ‖ travail, -aille, n.3
(travɑj)
[App. the same as F. travail, which in Canada (pronounced travày) is applied to the space between the two shafts of a vehicle in which the horse runs (cf. trave n. 1 b); this may well be originally the same word as prec., and ult. from L. trabs, trabem beam. Travaux is a false plural, found in books, for travails.]
See quotations, and cf. travois.
| 1801 A. Henry Jrnl. 13 Oct. in E. Coues New Light on Greater Northwest (1897) I. iv. 190 Chamanau arrived from the hills, bringing his deceased wife on a travaille to be buried here. 1865 Milton & Cheadle N.W. Passage by Land 171 A travaille is an Indian contrivance, consisting of two poles fastened together at an acute angle, with crossbars between. The point of the angle rests upon the back of the dog or horse, the diverging ends of the poles drag along the ground, and the baggage is put on to the crossbars. The Indians use these contrivances instead of carts. 1889 Century Mag. Jan. 339/2 In a month ‘Richard's himself again’, ready to fly over the grassy sward with his savage master or to drag the travaux and pack the buxom squaw. 1891 Cent. Dict., Travail, A means of transportation, commonly used by North American Indians... Also called travois, travee. |
▪ IV. travail, v.
(ˈtrævəl, -eɪl)
Forms: α. 3–5 trauaille, 3–7 -aile, (4– -alle), 4–6 -aill, -ayle, -ayll(e, -ale, -all, 4–7 -ail, 6 -al. 4–5 travaylle, 4–6 -aille, 4–7 -ayle, -aile, 5 -ale, 5–6 -aill, 5– travail; 4–5 Sc. trawayll, -ale, 5 -aill. β. 4–5 traueil(e, -eyll(e, 4–6 -eyle, -ele, 5–7 -elle, -el, 6–7 -ell; 4–7 travele, 5 -eylle, 5–6 -eille, -eyl(e, 5–7 -ell, 5–9 travel.
[ME. travaill-en, -vaylle, -vaile, -veyle, -veile, etc. (usually with u, or Sc. w, for v), a. OF. travaillier, -vailler, -veillier, -veiller, mod.F. travailler = Prov. trebalhar (also Pg. trabalhar, Sp. trabajar, It. travagliare); held by Romanic scholars generally to represent a late pop.L. or Com. Rom. *trepāliāre, deriv. of trepālium (582 a.d. in Du Cange), an instrument or engine of torture (prob. f. L. trēs, tria three + pālus stake, being so named from its structure). The etymological sense was thus ‘to put to torture, torment’, passing at an early stage into those of ‘afflict, vex, trouble, harass, weary’. Through the refl. sense ‘to trouble, afflict, or weary oneself’, came the intrans. ‘to toil, work hard, labour’. Thence also (as is generally thought) the verbal ns. OF. travail m. and travaille f., ME. travail, -aile: see travail n.1
The sense-development has not followed the same course in French and in English. Thus English has not developed the simple sense ‘work’, for which the OE. word has lived on. On the other hand, French has not evolved the sense ‘journey’ = F. voyager, which appeared early in Anglo-Fr., and has become the main sense in English, and is differentiated by the spelling travel, while the more original senses, so far as they continue in use, retain the earlier spelling travail.]
I. 1. trans. To torment, distress, harass, afflict, vex, trouble; to weary, tire. Obs. or arch.
| 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 6035 Þe fende yn-to hym was lope, And traueyled hym þre dayys with pyne. 1382 Wyclif Deut. viii. 16 After that he trauelde thee and strengthide [1388 turmentid thee, and preuede], at the eende he hadde mercy of thee. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) IV. 473 Preostes schulde be worshipped to fore oþer men, and nouȝt i-travalled and i-greeved. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 192 b/1 They were wery and sore traueyled by the waye which was longe. c 1489 ― Sonnes of Aymon iii. 70 For their strengthe, they trayueylle us moche. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 252 He came thether in such haste, that hys horse and men were sore traueyled. 1627 Lisander & Cal. iii. 39 Apt words to expresse the griefes, wherwith..we begin to be travelled. 1695 Ld. Preston Boeth. Pref. 11 We are travelled with Uneasiness and Inquietude amidst our largest Enjoyments. 1816 Scott Old Mort. iv, I jalouse he wad hae liked to hae ridden by, but his horse..was ower sair travailed. 1832 [see travailed 1]. |
† b. refl. To put oneself to trouble, to weary or exert onself, to labour or work hard: = Fr. se travailler, passing into the intr. sense 2. Obs.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 22775 (Edin.) Þai..trauaild [v.rr. -ailled, -alid, -ailed] þaim on al wis To paien him in his seruis. c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. iii. pr. xi. 76 (Camb. MS.) Euery beest trauaylith hym to deffende and kepe the sauacion of hys lyf. 1556 Aurelio & Isab. (1608) I v, Whoo lovethe not, traveillethe not him selfe. 1581 G. Pettie Guazzo's Civ. Conv. ii. (1586) 99 To exercise and trauaile himselfe in gouerning his subiects with iustice. |
† c. trans. To put to work, cause to work; to exert, employ, bring into action. Obs.
| 1390 Gower Conf. II. 16 And if he wolde have holde him stille And nothing spoke, he scholde have failed: Bot for he hath his word travailed And dorste speke, his love he spedde. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iii. (1586) 118 b, To trauell them [mares] moderately, will doe them rather good then harme. 1596 Danett tr. Comines (1614) 328 The poore man that trauelleth and toileth his body to get foode. 1610 Fletcher Faithf. Sheph. v. i, Let the floud..give remedy To greedy thirst, and travel not the tree That hangs with wanton clusters. 1630 Earl of Cork in Lismore Papers (1888) Ser. ii. III. 163, I haue with all affectionate zeale traveled my thoughts and stirred vp my best observacions [etc.]. |
† d. To shake, stir, ‘work’ (a thing) about.
| c 1440 Pallad. on Husb. xi. 403 Seuen curnels of a pynappul do In oon sester of wyn that is impure And trauayle hit a tyme to and fro And aftir suffre hit to reste go. c 1440 Anc. Cookery in Househ. Ord. (1790) 455 Alway travaile hit wel over the fyre. |
† e. trans. To labour at, to perform (some work, duty, or service). Obs. rare—1.
| 1569 Reg. Privy Council Scot. I. 673 The Precheouris and utheris travelling the charge of ministerie within the kirk. |
2. intr. (for refl.; cf. 1 b). To exert oneself, labour, toil, work hard. arch.
| c 1250 O. Kent. Serm. in O.E. Misc. 34 Þos laste on ure habbeþ i-trauailed. 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 10408 Y prey þe..To trauayle so moche for me. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. A. 549 Þenne þe fyrst bygonne to pleny & sayden þat þay hade travayled sore. 1423 Jas. I Kingis Q. lxx, As Tantalus I trauaile ay but-les. 1484 Caxton Fables of æsop vi. xvii, Who trauaylleth wel, he hath euer brede ynough for to ete. 1577 Googe Heresbach's Husb. 13 b, That he be not..vnable to trauayle for age. 1615 W. Lawson Orch. & Gard. (1623) 2 Such a Gardner as will conscionably, quietly and patiently, trauell in your Orchard. 1878 B. Taylor Deukalion i. ii. 22, I travail for my children. |
| fig. 1883 Stevenson Silverado Sq. v. (1886) 76 Even in its gentlest moods the salt sea travails, moaning among the weeds or lisping on the sand. |
b. Const. about, for, in (some matter), to do something. arch.
| c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 82/29 Ȝwat neode is it for to trauailli ferrore me to lede? Ibid. 350/161 Þou trauailest, he seide, a-boute nouȝt. a 1325 Prose Psalter xlviii[i]. 8 For þe pris of his raunsoun he shal trauail wyþ-outen ende. 1375 Barbour Bruce ix. 165 Thai had no-thing for to et, Bot gif thai traualit it to get. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) ix. 33 Þis folk..trauailez noȝt aboute tillyng of land. c 1489 Caxton Blanchardyn vi. 26 In vayne he traueylled for to require her from him. 1559 Bp. Scot in Strype Ann. Ref. (1709) I. App. vii. 18, I shall nede to travell in provinge of the same. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 240 He wyll sende Ambassadours, whiche shall trauell for peace. 1612 T. Taylor Comm. Titus i. 7 (1619) 158 Trauell not too much to be rich. 1678 Wanley Wond. Lit. World v. i. §93. 467/2 He travelled exceedingly for establishing the Peace of Christendom. 1704 Swift T. Tub Introd., I have been prevailed on..to travel in a compleat and laborious dissertation. 1897 W. Beatty Secretar xxv. 213 Gif the meenisters uprightly travelled to punish vice. |
† c. To work as a student, to study (in a subject or author). Obs.
| 1551–1742 [see travailed 2]. 1570 T. Wilson Demosthenes Ded. 2 Maister Cheeke, hauing traueyled in Demosthenes as much as any one of them all. |
3. Of a woman: To suffer the pains of childbirth; to be in labour. Also fig.
| a 1300 [see travailing vbl. n.]. 1388 Wyclif Rom. viii. 22 And we witen, that ech creature sorewith, and trauelith with peyne [1382 childith] til ȝit. 1470–85 Malory Arthur viii. i. 273 She byganne to trauaille fast of her child. 1565 Reg. Privy Council Scot. I. 396 The Countes of Buchane, quha than wes travelland with chyld. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 14 Flowres which only Dame Nature trauels with. 1658 T. Wall God's Revenge agst. Enemies Ch. 56 Travelling with the pangs of a false zeal, they fall in labour of a monstrous Reformation. 1730 T. Boston Mem. App. 28, I have long travailed in pain about it. 1827 Scott Surg. Dau. viii, Her son, for whom she had travailed and sorrowed. 1860 Pusey Min. Proph. 455 God's word..contains its own fulfilment in itself, and travaileth until it come to pass. |
† 4. Of a ship: To ‘labour’, to roll or pitch heavily and right itself with difficulty. Obs. rare.
| a 1340 Hampole Psalter ix. 34 Þi haly kirke..trauailand as a ship in gret stormes. 1390 Gower Conf. III. 296 The yonge king makth mochel wo So forto se the Schip travaile. |
II. † 5. To journey, etc.: see travel v., under which spelling these senses are now differentiated from the preceding.